Determine pricing, service levels, and process for initial service offering

[gusaus]

The purpose of this task is to work out pricing, perks, and a process for a beta/initial product offering. Whatever we hash out below can be added to the appropriate sections on https://openproducer.org/projects/openproducer-platform/, Netmix (place TBD) and https://opencollective.com/openproducerplatform

Using this Drupal shop as a model, I'd like to see if we could run a similar beta. Here's the general idea -

Process

Find 10 or so stations or podcasters to join the BETA

For each participant, we’ll do the following:

• Collect down payment for the first month of the full-service plan https://github.com/netmix/openproducer-platform/issues/25#issuecomment-608195226 (provide a discounted rate for a year)
• Perform site audit checking for best practices and security concerns; make a report.
• Setup an on-boarding meeting – At the onboarding meeting we’ll
  • discuss the existing site to learn about any pending tasks you need taken care of right away and walk you through the site audit report.
  • Gather use cases from them to cover the critical features
• Build, migrate and launch each site

During this time we would:

• Iterate until we have something solid and generally usable
• Launch the first version of the SaaS “self-service plan”, ending the beta period, and moving to general availability
• Contribute code, documentation, and related materials back to the project during the entire process.

Purpose

• Learn more about customer needs
• Release DIY version of the Radio and podcasting platform

We can hash out the details in this doc in addition to the comments here -
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UYP6OfxlTn6WqcxycZ2RqGBHMcngBayDVe-ksAGxd5g/edit?disco=AAAAJGOHaeA

[gusaus]

@tonyzeoli The google doc references a couple different Drupal based product and beta offerings. Not sure the pricing would be different if the initial product offering was WordPress based. Please feel free to revise and ask me to clarify any points of confusion.

[gusaus]

@tonyzeoli I'd like to solidify this paid beta plan so we can commence pitching to NFCB and other orgs/stations who have previously shown interest.

Would be great if you could review this section and any related comments.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UYP6OfxlTn6WqcxycZ2RqGBHMcngBayDVe-ksAGxd5g/edit#heading=h.r29mqtbujdn1

I'm up for a discussion when you're able.

[gusaus]

Say we determined the following (inspired by https://www.roundearth.io/pricing) would be a good price/service level for this type of paid beta…

$250/mo full-service plan

• Setup and Configuration
• Security Updates & Remediation
• Nightly Backups
• Hosting Included

Is there a particular host and plan we should use to provide this type of WordPress based beta?

[gusaus]

Again using this Drupal shop as a model, I'd like to see if we could run a similar beta. Here's the general idea -

Find 10 or so stations or podcasters to join the BETA

For each participant, we’ll do the following:

• Collect down payment for the first month of the full-service plan https://github.com/netmix/openproducer-platform/issues/25#issuecomment-608195226 (provide a discounted rate for a year)
• Perform site audit checking for best practices and security concerns; make a report.
• Setup an on-boarding meeting – At the onboarding meeting we’ll
  • discuss the existing site to learn about any pending tasks you need taken care of right away and walk you through the site audit report.
  • Gather use cases from them to cover the critical features
• Build, migrate and launch each site

During this time we would:

• Iterate until we have something solid and generally usable
• Launch the first version of the SaaS “self-service plan”, ending the beta period, and moving to general availability
• Contribute code, documentation, and related materials back to the project during the entire process.

Let's fine-tune this section of the google doc and make this happen -
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UYP6OfxlTn6WqcxycZ2RqGBHMcngBayDVe-ksAGxd5g/edit#heading=h.r29mqtbujdn1

Update: adding this to the issue description

[gusaus]

In addition to having participants pay to participate, we can also increase contributions by building sites and integrations during a hackathon.

We couldn’t call the events do_action, but we've been encouraged by the organizers to fork and remix their format

For example we can tweak some of the following ideas (which I did) -

Format

https://make.wordpress.org/community/2020/03/20/taking-charity-hackathons-online/

• Organize a country-wide event. Since these events are going to be virtual, it makes sense to bring in talents from the whole country, as well as reach more organizations that would otherwise be possible.
• Spread the work out over a few days/weeks. In order to give people the time to work on the websites for the stations, allow them to work over a longer time period than just one day.
• Provide virtual communication channels. Use your local WordPress community Slack group (or create one if you don’t have one already) and set up separate channels for each team to communicate.

Participant Roles

https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/event-formats/do_action-charity-hackathon/getting-particpants/#participant-roles

Not sure this has been addressed (in-person vs virtual do_action)… having completely separate teams per org might be a bit messy and inefficient for a countrywide/global, virtual event

In our case we’d probably want to identify roles and participants who can work across all projects
So a variation on the roles referenced -

• Project Manager
• Content Creator
• Social Media Manager
• Designer
• Site Configuration
• Quality Assurance Tester
• Documentation
• Fundraising
• Development (this work would primarily be as part of the OSS projects themselves - Newspack, LibreTime, Radio Station plugin, etc.)

....will continue in additional comments

[gusaus]

Again using this Drupal shop as a model, I'd like to see if we could run a similar beta. Here's the general idea -

And now Newspack just posted this about their beta process -
https://newspack.blog/2020/04/15/apply-to-join-newspack/

Considering we'll be using and contributing back to the same project, there are many elements of this process we could incorporate.

Main difference would be the pricing. If you look at the deck referenced in https://newspack.blog/2020/04/15/introducing-newspack/, we could ideally offer a lower price point https://github.com/OpenProducer/openproducer-platform/issues/11#issuecomment-608195226 and require payment for the first month up front (instead of 'not' charging until migration and configuration is complete).

[gusaus]

The Community Media Platform mentioned in https://github.com/netmix/openproducer-platform/issues/2#issuecomment-765069919 is being offered in partnership with the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA)
https://www.cbaa.org.au/web-services

I'm wondering if this type of price/service model could work for us?

• $1,500 upfront for initial site build
• $50 per month hosting which includes testing and deployment for core WordPress and plugin updates, nightly website backup and website recovery if required.
• Custom services, migration priced out individually
• Ongoing support sold as 5 - 10 hr blocks

[gusaus]

As mentioned in https://github.com/OpenProducer/community/issues/14, we've submitted our OpenProducer platform OpenProducer/community#9 to participate in FundOSS. My thought would be to offer some type of service as a perk.

With projects like AzuraCast, LibreTime, & Radio Station plugin also participating (if approved), there's good potential for coming up with complimentary campaigns, integrations, and even services.

[gusaus]

We found out that https://www.azuracast.com/ was accepted into the FundOSS pilot (happening later this month?).
https://blog.opencollective.com/fundoss-faqv1/

In addition to collaborating with them on integrations https://github.com/OpenProducer/openproducer-platform/issues/9#issuecomment-807879471 this could be a good time to partner up on the service side.

[gusaus]

@tonyzeoli What are your current thoughts about pricing & service levels -

should we do one of the following?

• straight-up hosted solution similar to https://mediarealm.com.au/radiowebsites/ or https://ghost.org/pricing/
• mix of upfront setup + hosting + ala cart service/support similar to https://www.cbaa.org.au/web-services or https://newspack.pub/newspack-faq/
• keep the services and hosting separate similar to https://centova.com/en/cast/packages
• something else?

Seems like price/service levels could be an extension of https://radiostation.pro/pricing/ with tiers that would include Radio Station PRO? That's somewhat similar to what https://mediarealm.com.au is doing w/ MetaRadio

Maybe we should continue to sort out in this google doc since we've already started drafting -
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UYP6OfxlTn6WqcxycZ2RqGBHMcngBayDVe-ksAGxd5g/edit#heading=h.ng8p981t3jxi

ideally, we could sort out the details by end of this month.

Let me know how I can help!

[gusaus]

@tonyzeoli FYI I transferred this issue out of the internal repo so we could open up discussion with other potential collaborators and partners.

[gusaus]

@tonyzeoli @majick777 Resurfacing this issue in follow-up to the email sent out regarding OpenProducer and related services.

As mentioned in the email I thought we look at doing an initial beta service offering where we could complete a release ready MVP by building sites for interested participants (including the clients/partners I'm working with). Another outcome would be both a freely available release as well as a stable setup we could offer as SaaS.

Check out https://github.com/netmix/openproducer-platform/issues/25#issuecomment-821476207 for a couple of options/approaches to evaluate.

[gusaus]

@tonyzeoli With regards to having some good OpenProducer/Radio Station examples to showcase we could probably start with the following clients/partners.

• https://soundsandcolorsradio.com/ - currently using AirTime PRO and Pro.Radio but we could move them to OP + Radio Station PRO once there is at least metadata support for AzuraCast or LibreTime.
• https://justjazz.tv/ - currently on OP and testing Radio Station PRO on a staging site. Most likely they'd just stream https://soundsandcolorsradio.com/ so probably wouldn't need anything but the player. So a good use case for Radio Station player pro
• https://angelcityjazz.com/ - currently on OP and haven't really discussed radio; that said I could totally see radio being a great value add site like this; for instance, they could just have an AzuraCast powered station that plays artists from current, past, and upcoming festivals. So again, I'm not sure they'd need Radio Station PRO but it could be a great showcase for OP and the player.

Are there any clients/partners you've worked with that might want to make the jump?

If we have enough that are potentially interested, possibly we could run a paid beta as outlined in the issue description. This discussion (the most popular all-time) in the LibreTime community could also be a source for beta participants or customers.

[gusaus]

@tonyzeoli Per our recent convos in Slack, I think we're at a point where we can announce and deliver services once we work out the details here.

As mentioned in Slack, I'd recommend the following -

1. Newspack service (bespoke and SaaS) - Define and launch a Newspack offering with Netmix or Digital Strategy Works as the entity. We already have that set up on DevPanel - and I believe they already have the infra to run a SaaS. Through the partnership we're forming with SPEC we'll have people who can provide support and contribute to Newspack as a way to gain hands-on experience.

2. Newspack / Radio Beta - We're at a point where we can run with paid beta referenced in the issue description once we define. We could potentially brand as a OpenProducer/Netmix/Newspack partnership - we'd def have to followup with your connects on the Newspack side beforehand) 'could' be a catalyst for both the bespoke and eventual SaaS offering on Radio Station PRO. As mentioned in the last comment, a couple of the beta participants would be OpenProducer's current clients. The blocker has been 'them' not being able to secure a budget to participate (and pay us for any custom work on top) but I'm working on a solution to that by onboarding 'them' to the same Open Collective Foundation which is now hosting OpenProducer.

3. Radio Station PRO bespoke offering - While the outcome of Scope out an MVP for the Radio and podcast platform #11 will be a radio sites SaaS platform, we can launch the initial service offering on Radio Station PRO using our Newspack Radio branch as a base. I don't think we'd want to use 'Newspack' in the naming of the service. Think we could just call it something generic like 'Radio Station PRO sites'. We could however say in our marketing that the sites are built on Newspack - even keep the 'powered by Newspack and Automattic' (or whatever it is that appears in the footer when you do a fresh install). Obviously, we'd want to talk with your connection at Newspack before we go public with any offering. Personally, I think clearly stating that we're using AND contributing to Newspack would be a win-win.

While we obviously won't be launching any service in 2021, I'm hoping we'd be able to solidify our plan now that we have the tools and capacity to deliver.